Official State Metal of Nevada

Silver was one of the most important minerals of Nevada's early mining days. But silver wasn't exactly "mined" in Nevada; it was literally shoveled off the ground! Heavy gray crusts of silver had formed on the surface of the desert over millions of years and were polished by dust and wind to the dull luster of a cow horn (called "horn silver"). A big silver bed could be tens of meters wide and more than a kilometer long (worth $27,000 a ton in 1860's dollars).

These "surface bonanzas" lasted only a few seasons, long enough to put up saloons and little else. The rough, violent life of many western movies reached its purest state in the Nevada silver camps. The territory of Nevada and surrounding states were picked clean of silver within a few decades.